In general, a driver in a vehicle is mostly visible at a front side. Thus, a driver visible at the left, right, and rear sides is mostly covered by a vehicle body, so the driver may have considerably limited visibility. In order to solve this problem, in general, a visibility assisting unit (e.g., a side mirror, and the like) is used to complement the driver's limited visibility. A current tendency is that techniques including a camera unit that captures images of an exterior of a vehicle and provides the same to drivers are applied to vehicles.
An around view monitoring (AVM) system, among these techniques, includes a plurality of cameras installed surrounding a vehicle to provide 360-degree omnidirectional images. The AVM system combines images around a vehicle captured by a plurality of cameras that serve to capture images of a surrounding area of the vehicle, to provide a top view image as if a driver views his or her vehicle from the sky, thus displaying an obstacle and a parking area near the vehicle and resolving a blind spot.
However, when the AVM system detects a parking area, if a parking area is covered, in a top view image, with an obstacle such as a column, or the like, the AVM system may not be able to detect the parking area the moment when a vehicle starts to park.